Increased law enforcement personnel to patrol roads

Jun 28, 2017

Additional law enforcement personnel will be patrolling Iowa roads during the July 4 weekend, according to local officials.

With fireworks now legal in Iowa, there will be even more celebrating the Fourth of July and preceding weekend. Unfortunately, that celebrating too often includes misuse of alcohol which may lead to drunk driving.

The most recent information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that nationally over the 2015 Fourth of July holiday (from 6 p.m. July 2 to 6 a.m. July 6) 148 people were killed in crashes involving at least one driver or motorcycle operator with a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher, and 92 people died in crashes involving at least one driver or motorcycle operator with a BAC of .15 or higher — almost twice the legal limit.

In Iowa, there were five fatalities in 2015 with three being alcohol related and there were five in 2016, four of which were alcohol related.

Nationwide, the number of overall drunk-driving traffic fatalities increased by 3 percent from 9,943 in 2014 to 10,265 in 2015.

That is one person killed every 51 minutes or the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors.